A location based service (LBS) refers to a mobile communication service that utilizes location information of a mobile station (e.g., a user with a mobile station) to provide real-time location based information to the user, such as traffic or weather information. The LBS may be either a bi-directional LBS or a unidirectional LBS for a satellite DMB (digital multimedia broadcast) and a terrestrial DMB.
The satellite DMB and the terrestrial DMB may provide multimedia services, whereas digital audio broadcasting (DAB) provides only an audio service. DMB has been limited in application to LBS for several reasons. One such reason is that a DMB terminal only receives multimedia information and digital data transmitted through a DMB transmitter of a DMB system. The DMB transmitter, however, is not provided with a separate broadcasting terminal or with a unit to manage such a separate broadcasting terminal.
Unidirectional LBS for DMB, however, may be implemented using a Eureka-147 communication network to provide a transmitter ID to a transmitter to manage each cell, as described further below with respect to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating provision of a transmitter ID in a conventional Eureka-147 communication network.
Referring to FIG. 1, each transmitter is provided with a plurality of sub-class IDs. Each sub-class ID is composed of main IDs and sub IDs. The main IDs designated by “00” distinguish the entire region from another region. The sub IDs designated by “00_xx” identify each transmitter.
The conventional LBS system is based on a mobile communication service, and is divided into a network based method and a GPS based method, according to a method for obtaining a mobile station user's location information.
The network based method is a cell ID method that identifies to which cell of a mobile communication network that a mobile station that has been powered on by a user belongs. The corresponding cell (e.g., base station) may thus be registered to a mobile communication network system. The mobile station and the cell transmit and receive location information at a constant rate, and location information of the mobile station is registered to the system whenever the cell changes as the user moves. Accordingly, the system may identify to which cell of the mobile communication network the mobile station belongs.
The GPS based method serves to identify a location of the mobile station by the system as the mobile station obtains precise location information using a GPS chip mounted therein to report the location information to a base station.
In the conventional LBS system, when the mobile station reports obtained location information to a corresponding cell (or base station), the LBS system provides a specified service to the user based on the reported location information. Accordingly, information and services provided to the user may differ according to the user's location inside each cell of the mobile communication network.
Furthermore, in the conventional LBS system, the user's location information must be reported to the base station, which may result in a compromise to the user's privacy. Also, because services are provided based on the bi-directional mobile communication network, the LBS system may not be applied to a unidirectional broadcasting system. Additionally, since specified information and service are provided to the user according to the user's location cell, a more expensive fee may be charged to the user than in a unidirectional broadcasting system.